Say you are living abroad and you observe what you feel is a lack of language development for children under age 6. In other words, children remain silent until spoken to, and it’s rare for exchanges between adults and children. You have journaled your observation and feel ready to share this idea with others.
David Brooks of the New York Times writes an opinion column on culture, politics and morality in our nation. He believes the youth of our nation suffer from a type of shame culture. In a recent article, “The Shame Culture,” he draws upon other writers–both to launch the topic and to support his thesis statement.
In 1987, Allan Bloom wrote a book called “The Closing of the
American Mind.” The core argument was that American campuses
were awash in moral relativism. Subjective personal values had
replaced universal moral principles. […]Bloom’s thesis was accurate at the time, but it’s not accurate anymore.
College campuses are today awash in moral judgment. Many people
carefully guard their words, afraid they might transgress one of the
norms that have come into existence. […] When a moral crusade
spreads across campus, many students feel compelled to post in
support of it on Facebook within minutes. If they do not post, they
will be noticed and condemned. […]Last year, Andy Crouch published an essay in Christianity Today
that takes us toward an answer.Crouch starts with the distinction the anthropologist Ruth Benedict
popularized, between a guilt culture and a shame culture. […]
(New York Times, 15 March 2016)
Study the essay to follow Brooks full argument.
Your observations of culture should lead you to read. Your reading will take you to the studies of sociologists and linguists.
Then, who knows–you might become the expert that
the rest of us reference to understand our world.
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Continue Module 5, Research & Presenting Evidence: Backstory
